Here are a few photos of the big heads.

It is a big relief to have them survive their first firing. Especially as I dried them rather quickly due to time pressures. The crank body is quite forgiving though as it is so groggy. I am very grateful for that!

I firstly applied some underglaze colour and engobes to the unfired heads before bisque firing to 1000 degrees centigrade.

Although the clay is designed for stoneware firings, I am not intending to take it up to complete vitrification. I am using it for its structural qualities and colour response. Hence I fired it quite low as I wanted to work on the surface with abrasives to smooth out surface blemishes. This is a lot easier if the ceramic body isn’t too hard. Later I may go up to about 1100 degrees but this is purely for colour and to make sure the engobes that I am using are totally fired onto the piece.